[[quoteright:327:[[Webcomic/CatAndGirl http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/disney_owns_this_trope.jpg]]]][[caption-width-right:327:[[Disney/{{Pinocchio}} When you wish upon a star]], all your dreams will become ours!]]

->''"Like a true American, I love all things Disney. Mostly because all things are owned by Disney."''-->-- ''Creator/StephenColbert''

Trademarks are distinctive signs or symbols used by a person or company to promote and differentiate their products and services from the competitors. They typically consist of a name, word, phrase, logo, or combination of the four, and are distinctly associated with their brand. See [[UsefulNotes/{{Trademark}} the article on the subject]] for an in-depth explanation.

Trademarks belong to a category called "intellectual property rights", alongside similar concepts called copyrights and patents. A full discussion of their definitions and purpose is beyond the scope of this entry, but the three terms all bear a common theme: They acknowledge creation or ownership of ''something'', and provide the owner with some control over how it gets used. If somebody else attempts to use it commercially without the owner's permission (often with an exchange of money involved for such permission), the owner can take them to court and sue for damages.

Now, in Real Life there are certain rules and limitations on what does and does not constitute an infringement, and what is and is not eligible for protection under intellectual property rights laws in the first place. These laws are also what (ostensibly) protect independent artists, inventors, and writers from having their work stolen or destroyed by EvilInc, ExecutiveMeddling, severely MisaimedFandom, or having the SerialNumbersFiledOff.

But there are no such limitations or ethical quandaries in fiction! Some corporations (for example, MegaCorp) are ''so'' damn powerful and wield ''so'' much influence that they can put a stamp of ownership on literally ''anything''. The grass in your front yard? Patented by a gardening company. The morning sunrise? Copyrighted. The name of your favorite pet? A bright sunny day? The word "the"? Yes, them too. If it exists, then somebody, somewhere, has stamped a copyright or trademark upon it, regardless of common sense or reason, and they'll happily send out their ArmyOfLawyers to collect royalties at even the slightest hint of infringement.

It should be noted that not all copyright/trademark claims are ''valid''; just look at the mess over "HappyBirthdayToYou" as an example of a company attempting this and (eventually) failing.

Related to StuckOnBandAidBrand, where a company not only holds the trademark, but continually remind people of it. May overlap with TradeSnark, where words are labelled as trademarks for humorous purposes.

Don't confuse this for tropes that the Walt Disney Company [[CharacteristicTrope owns at using]], such as the DisneyDeath or DisneyAcidSequence. It's more general and metaphorical than that.

----!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

!!RealLife Examples:

[[folder:Disney]]All joking aside, the Walt Disney company now owns or at least claims the rights to a whole raft of characters from classic literature, ''Franchise/IndianaJones'', ''Franchise/TheMuppets'', ''Franchise/{{Zorro}}'', ''Franchise/{{Star Wars}}'', [[Creator/{{Pixar}} Pixar's]] entire film library (though that at least is justified, as they distributed all of Pixar's films prior to buying them), everything related to Creator/{{ABC}} and Creator/{{ESPN}}, and every single character published by MarvelComics. And that's not even beginning to mention their own prodigious stable of original characters and franchises.

* The Swedish comic character Arne Anka (Arne Duck), a cartoon duck with a fondness for drinking, sex, classic literature and rants about politics, wasn't popular with the lawyers of Disney, who decided to sue his creator Charlie Christensen. At first, Christensen fruitlessly tried to use logical reasoning, saying "surely Disney don't hold the right to ''all'' cartoon ducks?" but then solved the problem by changing the look of Arne, particularly the beak. Arne kept that look for a few pages, but then he bought and put on a toy duck beak. That way, whenever Disney's lawyers complained, Christensen could point out that Arne wasn't really a duck, the toy beak just made him look like one.* Disney tried the same routine on ComicBook/HowardTheDuck -- and succeeded, giving ''Disney'' the right to redesign Howard until they no longer considered him infringing. Their design was so horrible that Marvel stopped using the character; much later, when a new Howard the Duck comic appeared on the Marvel MAX imprint, Howard was turned into a giant rat to avoid the problem entirely. Now that Disney actually ''owns'' Howard, he's finally [[http://www.newsarama.com/22800-marvel-s-howard-the-duck-to-get-new-ongoing-series.html back to being a duck again]].* Disney's ''[[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Oz]]'' movie, ''Film/OzTheGreatAndPowerful'' ran into this, because Warner Bros. owns the rights to the 1939 ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' film, which Disney's film was most trying to emulate (the ''Oz'' books are in the PublicDomain). Disney and Warner Bros. held constant meetings through the development of the film, just to make sure that the sets weren't too similar or that the Wicked Witch's skin color was only a slightly different shade of green.* Creator/{{Universal}} ran into this with ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman'', based on the fairy tale, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." At a ''[=ComicCon=]'' panel with the director, he stated that they got into trouble with Disney over it, and so their movie has to have ''eight'' dwarfs. Since the Brothers Grimm's version of the fairy tale (first printed in 1812) already has seven dwarfs, the only way you could run into trouble with the dwarfs would be by making them look too similar to Disney's version or giving them the same names. More likely, the director was joking.* Disney has attempted to copyright characters such as [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Alice]] and Franchise/PeterPan in New Zealand. It doesn't help that the rights are in various states of public domain and still in copyright in different parts of the world.* Disney tried to stop release of a 1986 Filmation animated film, ''Animation/PinocchioAndTheEmperorOfTheNight'' and Fox's animated series ''Peter Pan and the Pirates'', claiming Pinocchio and Peter Pan as intellectual properties. Understandable for the former, since Filmation came clean that their ''Pinocchio'' was indeed intended as an unofficial sequel to [[Disney/{{Pinocchio}} the Disney version]], not [[Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio the original literary work]]. Nevertheless, when Disney subsequently sued Filmation for copyright infringement, but they lost the suit as the original ''Pinocchio'' story was written by Carlo Collodi and is in the public domain. ''Peter Pan and the Pirates'', however, was based off the original books.* In the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden, Disney attempted to trademark "Seal Team 6" in the hopes of making an ''Series/{{NCIS}}''-style television show based on the team for Creator/{{ABC}}. They ended up withdrawing their trademark request a short while later, and nothing ever came of the show itself.* Disney ran into this themselves when trying to release ''Film/TheAdventuresOfSharkboyAndLavagirl''. Turns out a Wrestling/{{WCW}}[=\=]Wrestling/{{TNA}} talent had already trademarked "Sharkboy". Eventually some kind of settlement was reached because the movie still came out. Good luck finding any Sharkboy wrestling videos on a Google search.* Disney had attempted to block 'Music/{{deadmau5}}' from filing a copyright on his signature icon on the grounds that the mau5head would be confused for their own Mickey Mouse head icon. InternetBackdraft came shortly after. Later, they released Re-Micks [[{{Hypocrite}} which uses deadmau5's own signature song without his permission.]] They ended up settling the case [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/deadmau5-disney-settle-dispute-mouse-804072?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thr%2Fnews+%28The+Hollywood+Reporter+-+Top+Stories%29 out-of-court]].* In 2013, Disney announced that they were planning to trademark the phrase "Dia de los muertos" (Day of the Dead, a well-known holiday in Mexico) for marketing purposes related to ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', the upcoming Creator/{{Pixar}} film based on said holiday. The Latino community had [[InternetBackdraft a bit of an uproar]] about this, among them Mexican-American cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, who drew a poster of a giant skeletal Mickey with the caption "It's coming to trademark your cultura". A week later, Disney decided not to go through with the trademarking, which they said was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_(2017_film) "intended to protect any potential title for our film and related activities"]]. (Alcaraz was then asked to consult on the film.)[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]* Warner Bros. and Disney, parent companies of DC and Marvel, respectively, have had a joint trademark registration in the US for the term "Super Hero" and its variant spellings since 1979.* Just ''try'' to make a comic book superhero with the name of ''[[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]]'' these days--the character is a copyright and trademark of Creator/MarvelComics, even though Thor is a mythological character from thousands of years ago, and is therefore by law a PublicDomainCharacter. The Asylum has come close, making a {{mockbuster}} [[Film/AlmightyThor film about the mythical character]].** Similarly, there are some portions of Greek and Egyptian mythology that one would think would be fairly important in the Marvel Universe, but which are somewhat marginalized due to their connection to Wonder Woman or Shazam. * Look at any [[ProfessionalWrestling wrestling show]] or [[WrestlingGame video game]] before 2007 featuring Wrestling/HulkHogan and you'll see somewhere that Hulk, Hulkster, and Hulkamania are owned by MarvelComics. Fitting since Terry Bolea started using the name Hulk after appearing on a radio show with Lou Ferrigno and the host noted that Terry was "bigger than [[TheIncredibleHulk The Hulk]]." (In 2007, Hogan got the trademark rights to his own ring name and associated names, which are now owned by his own Hogan Holdings Ltd)* Public Domain-centric comics such as ''ComicBook/ProjectSuperpowers'' usually rename and occasionally even redesign some characters that, while public domain, have since seen their name, look or [[LegacyCharacter legacy]] become owned by a much larger company. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]* For several decades, iconic evil organization SPECTRE, along with the organization's equally iconic leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, could not be used as villains in the Film/JamesBond films due to a successful series of lawsuits filed against [[Creator/AlbertRBroccoli EON Productions]] by Kevin [=McClory=] over the rights to ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'' and plot elements introduced in the story. In the movie ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', Blofeld (and SPECTRE by association), here an unnamed bald guy with a cat, is rather summarily bumped off for good before the opening credits, likely a TakeThat to the property owner. However, in 2013, MGM and the [=McClory=] estate reached a settlement, with Danjaq (the parent company of EON) and MGM buying full rights to SPECTRE and Blofeld. [[Film/{{Spectre}} A movie followed suit.]]* The phrase "NoAnimalsWereHarmed®", as seen in movie credits, is [[http://www.americanhumane.org/protecting-animals/programs/no-animals-were-harmed/ a registered trademark of the American Humane Association]], which monitors animal use on film and television productions. [[JustifiedTrope This is so that]] unscrupulous filmmakers can't put that stamp of approval in their credits without the Humane Society's actual involvement, whether by outright lying or by creating some kind of shill organization to rubber-stamp anything they do.* For the duration of the injunction prohibiting Creator/TheAsylum from releasing ''Clash of the Empires'' under its original title, ''Age of the Hobbits'', no one except for Warner Bros./New Line, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and The Saul Zaentz Company is allowed to even ''think'' about putting the word "Hobbit" in a movie's title.* Ted Healy once tried to maintain control of Film/TheThreeStooges for years after he created the act. First, he prevented Fox from signing Moe, Larry, and Shemp to a motion picture contract because he knew the contract would cut him out. Then, when they left him and started performing by themselves, Healy tried to stop them on a copyright basis. When all else failed, [[MadBomber Healy allegedly resorted to terror threats against theatres that were thinking about booking their act]], which almost led to Shemp leaving the group.* When ''Film/MalcolmX'' came out Warner Bros. was dismayed to learn that they couldn't trademark the letter "X", so a lot of merchandise was produced without anyone having to pay them royalties.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* Franchise/HarryPotter®, and the infamous fiasco regarding merchandising rights owners Warner Bros.' heavy-handed actions against fan sites in December 2000 (which, according to ''Harry: A History'', was a mistake on WB's lawyers' part).[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]* Subversion: In 2010, Lionsgate globally blocked several ''Series/SesameStreet'' clips on Website/YouTube. Since ''Sesame Street'' is owned by Sesame Workshop and not Lionsgate, many asked, "why?" It turned out that all of the clips being blocked were featured in the 1989 TV special ''Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting'', which was about to be released on DVD (with Sesame Workshop's blessing) by Lionsgate.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]* Warner/Chappell Music previously owned the lyrics of "HappyBirthdayToYou", and technically any time you perform it in public you owe them money. Hence, restaurants avoid singing it, [[HappyBirthdayToYou instead inventing their own ditties.]] This copyright applies only to the lyrics, and only in the USA. In the United Kingdom, for instance, there's no such restriction. The lyrics and music of the original tune, "Good Morning to All", are out of copyright. In 2015 it was ruled the copyright on the lyrics was ''never'' valid because of evidence that the lyrics were actually older than Warner/Chappell had been claiming.* Nursery rhymes can apparently be copyrighted--Larrikin Music sued Men at Work for 3 notes of "Kookaburra" in a flute riff in "Down Under." Kraft Foods, on the other hand, has never made a fuss over the song despite direct mention of [[http://www.vegemite.com.au Vegemite]] in the lyrics.* Since Sony Music Entertainment got into bed with Website/YouTube, music videos which were formerly freely available outside the USA are now completely blocked to British viewers. A black screen comes up to tell you, ''SME has blocked this video on copyright grounds and it is not available in your country, Sorry about that.'' SME's comments page on [=YouTube=] is henceforth almost completely choked with comments about this, with varying degrees of civility towards the actions of the SME company execs. * Mattel, the maker of Barbie, famously (and unsuccessfully) attempted to sue MCA Records over the 1997 Aqua song "Barbie Girl"[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pinball]]* In [[TheEighties the mid-Eighties,]] Creator/WilliamsElectronics began securing trademarks on various aspects of {{Pinball}} games in an effort to stymie their competitors, who simply resorted to WritingAroundTrademarks instead. These have since fallen into general use now that Williams is no longer in the pinball business. A few examples:** Williams trademarked "Multiball" around TheNineties to make it so only they could make pinball games with the feature. When Creator/DataEast came up with "Tri-Ball" (3-ball multiball) and "M-Ball" (6-ball multiball), Williams realized their plan wouldn't work, and decided to license out the term instead. By the time Creator/{{Sega}} released ''Pinball/{{Apollo 13}},'' they proudly promoted it as the first game with "'''13-Ball''' Multiball!".** Similarly, "kickback" (an automatic launcher that, when activated, kicks the ball back into play instead of draining) was called "Laser Kick" by Creator/DataEast, while the ''VideoGame/ProPinball'' series called it "ball rescue".** "Bumpers" has long been generic, but Wlliams used both "thumper bumpers" and "jet bumpers," while Creator/{{Gottlieb}} had "percussion bumpers" and "pop bumpers," and Genco used "power bumpers."[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]* Wrestling/BigVanVader wrestled as "Super Vader" in the Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation due to Big Van Vader being a gimmick Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling had Go Nagai himself work on and them not wanting it used by their direct competition.* [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Entertainment]] has fallen afoul of trademarks twice:** For a short while, it looked like the company couldn't use the wrestler [[Wrestling/DavidHeath Gangrel]] in its game properties, because Gangrel was a registered trademark of Creator/WhiteWolf (as a ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' clan name). They were able to iron that particular problem out and get Gangrel into games.** The more famous one was having to change its company name to World Wrestling Entertainment (and its logo to WW) due to a violation of an agreement with the World Wildlife Fund concerning the international use of the WWF acronym.** On the flip side: the company aggressively defends any trademarks it owns, when the Wrestling/AmericanWrestlingAssociation went under, former employees got together and started using and selling the AWA to upstart companies, till WWE torpedoed this budding revival.** WWE often trademarks wrestler names — which explains why performers who leave WWE often have to use new names. (Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys, for example, had to become "Team 3D" when the pair left WWE for TNA.** Jay Reso, better known as "Wrestling/{{Christian}}" in WWE, beat the company on this one by trademarking "Christian Cage" to ensure that he could use his "WWE name" when he jumped ship to TNA.** Ever since the mid-to-late '00s it seems that WWE has taken their policy a step further by making all newcomers use a WWE-given name, even those who previously wrestled under their real names or own their own names. Wrestling/CMPunk, Wrestling/{{Sting}}, Wrestling/SamoaJoe and Wrestling/AJStyles have all managed to evade this rule.* This complaint has been thrown at Wrestling/{{AAA}}, not only for not allowing popular wrestlers like Wrestling/LaParka and Wrestling/{{Psicosis}} to use their gimmicks away from the promotion but then giving those gimmicks to new wrestlers who then were allowed to use the gimmicks on the independent and foreign circuits with AAA's blessing. * Wrestling/{{CMLL}} forced a wrestler known as [[Wrestling/{{Hunico}} Mistico]] to abandon his gimmick since they had their own Wrestling/{{Mistico}} and then leaving ''that'' Mistico in search of a new gimmick when he left them and they not only duplicated it with yet another wrestler but also transferred over his entire "Super Sky Team" [[PowerStable stable]]. Ironically, CMLL couldn't or didn't care to block usage of "Los Reyes Del Aire", the FanNickname for Super Sky Team taken after recurring CMLL event that Myzteziz would name a new tag team of his after.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]* Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast has a trademark on the term "tap" for the act of turning a card sideways to signify it's used.* [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Games Workshop]] infamously attempted to trademark the term SpaceMarine. Thankfully for [[StarCraft Blizzard]], [[Film/{{Aliens}} James Cameron]] and [[ASpaceMarineIsYou others]] they were unsuccessful. However, in that case, the estates of [[Literature/{{StarshipTroopers}} Robert Heinlein]], [[Literature/{{Lensman}} Edward Elmer Smith]] and Bob Olsen (who coined the term in his novel "Captain Brink of the Space Marines" [1932]) would overturn Games Workshop in this. * ''[[TabletopGame/{{Battletech}} Battletech]]'' was originally named ''Battledroids'', but Lucasfilm sent a C&D, forcing a change to the more recognizable name. [=FASA=] would be hit ''hard'' with this trope about 12 years later after a dispute over the Unseen that has been ''only as of 2015'' finally put behind the franchise.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]* ''columbinus'', a play about the lives of the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} shooters' lives before the massacre, ran into a strange case of this. There was to be a fantasy sequence in which Loner (Dylan Klebold) fantasizes about acting out the haymow scene in ''Theatre/SpringAwakening'' with Rebel. In the original play which is in public domain, Melchior actually rapes Wendla - but the idea of the scene was that he was fantasizing about kissing and holding her consensually. Problem was, the musical Spring Awakening that was in off-Broadway production at the time (2004) already featured Melchior and Wendla having consensual sex. The scene was replaced with him helping Rebel act out the lines for Romeo and Juliet.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* Creator/{{Sega}} holds patents for the [[http://www.strutpatent.com/patent/054112729/video-game-with-spiral-loop-graphics corkscrews]] from [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Sonic 2's]] Emerald Hill, the [[http://www.strutpatent.com/patent/055133070/video-game-with-switchable-collision-graphics loops from Aquatic Ruin]] which are crossed by an alternate path and also [[http://www.strutpatent.com/patent/054112702/split-screen-video-game-with-character-playfield-position-exchange the teleportation item from Vs mode]].** Sega also owns a patent on using an on-screen arrow to tell the player which direction to go. Apparently they think they invented the road sign in 1999. → Look at us, we're violating a patent! ←** In 2009 and 2011, Sega was awarded two more patents on the use of tap and drag-and-drop controls on a touchscreen to move characters around; i.e., using a touchscreen ''as a touchscreen!'' That's right, Sega owns drag-and-drop. Which they seem to think they invented in their famous game, Windows 3. They even filed a FrivolousLawsuit against Creator/{{Level 5}} in 2012 for 900 million yen (US$11 million) claiming that ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' infringes these patents, despite the fact that ''Inazuma Eleven'' was released in 2008. Suffice it to say, Level-5's rebuttal was quite possibly the most epic pwning ever to happen via corporate public statement.* For the Virtual Console re-release of ''VideoGame/StarTropics'', the word "yo-yo" was changed to "star" because "yo-yo" is a trademarked name in Canada. Weirdly, the same change wasn't made for the later Virtual Console release of ''VideoGame/EarthBound''.** Also done in the VC re-release for ''Zoda's Revenge''. "Tetrads" were changed to "blocks", and "Tetris" was changed to "Puzzle".* The VideoGame/{{Tetris}} Company has not only trademarked the name "Tetris", but they have also trademarked the Tetromino shapes and the theme song, and Henk Rogers will send cease-and-desist letters to anyone who dares to so much as make a game with falling tetrominoes. TTC has gone so far as to claim infringement on elements of the game which cannot be copyrighted (as ruled by the US Supreme Court in ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_v._Borland Lotus v. Borland]]'').** The song is actually [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korobeiniki a Russian folk song]] that is firmly in the public domain with respect to ''copyright'', but because it has built up a secondary meaning, it's a ''trademark'' within video games.** On top of ''Lotus v. Borland'', Lego already tried to copyright/"trademark" a patent leading to the Supreme Court decision "Trademark law should not be used to perpetuate monopoly rights enjoyed under now-expired patents." With enough money to cover the legal costs, a large company making a profitable Tetris clone would theoretically be able to easily defeat The Tetris Company in court (except for the music). It's just that without the Tetris name, it's hard to make a lot of money selling a Tetris-like game, so no one has bothered.* Creator/{{Nintendo}} owns the use of the SanityMeter in video games. They patented it when they made ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''. Well, more specifically, what they patented was [[InterfaceScrew when it goes down]]).** Nintendo also patented the D-Pad in the form of a cross-shaped button. This is the reason why all of SEGA's and Microsoft's systems have circular D-pads and the [=PlayStations=] have four buttons arranged in a cross in their place. However, the patent expired in the mid-2000's, so it will be interesting to see if future non-Nintendo consoles will opt for a cross-shaped d-pad. As of 2013, it would seem like the Xbox One has.* If you were waiting on a LoadingScreen of a game made between 1995 and 2015 and wondered why there wasn't a MiniGame to play while you wait, it was due to {{Namco}}; they had a patent on that which lasted during that period, until the patent finally ended in 2015, despite the concept coming from old tape loader games on the C64.* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' creator Mojang AB tried to trademark the word "scrolls" for the use as a [[VideoGame/{{Scrolls}} game title]] (and on various t-shirts and other merchandise). Since Mojang founder Notch is far from the first (let alone only) person to have the word "scrolls" in the name of something and doing so would allow him to play this trope painfully straight (and retroactively), some of those people wanted to put a stop to it (and indeed have to [[http://kotaku.com/5847295/mojang-v-bethesda-part-2-the-attorneys-and-notch--pete-weigh-in thanks to the way in which not acting on it would be more or less giving up their own]]). Creator/{{Bethesda}} (creaters of ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series) got there first (although this hasn't stopped some people turning it around and claiming that Bethesda were suing Mojang merely for using this name, thus accusing them of playing the trope straight in another way entirely).* According to Creator/NCSoft, creator of ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', Uncle Sam, a character created in 1826 by the U.S. Government... and by law thusly a '''''public domain''''' character usable by anyone for any purpose, is owned wholly and completely by Creator/DCComics, and will generic your character if you use the character's image in the game. On the other hand, Marvel sued Creator/NCSoft just because it was theoretically possible to make characters who looked vaguely like Marvel characters (it was eventually settled out of court), so after that they tended to err on the side of over-zealousness.* In 2006, [[UsefulNotes/TheRedCross the Canadian Red Cross]] issued a press release asking video game makers to stop using the red cross in their games as a first-aid symbols, because it is actually a protected symbol specific to their organization per UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar, and inappropriate use could dilute the protective value of the symbol in various dangerous places. This is why Valentine from ''VideoGame/SkullGirls'' had her costume redesigned after release to change the crosses from red to fuchsia. The "proper" generic symbol for first-aid is a ''white'' cross on a green background . * The ESRB holds a trademark on all their rating icons, in order to ensure that publishers can't misrepresent the content of their games without submitting them to the rating board. Didn't stop some from trying; the developers of ''Wartune'' found this out the hard way when they tried to use the AO ("Adults Only") rating in their Internet ads as part of a SexSells campaign.* As of January 21, 2014, the developers of ''VideoGame/CandyCrushSaga'' held exclusive rights to the word "candy" in app titles, and tried to file for rights of the word "saga". They later gave up on the latter (due to them attempting to sue several companies using "saga" in their products, which created quite a backdraft), and gave up the rights for the former, in February, as a result.* Force feedback (the "rumbling") in controllers is owned by a company called Immersion. Sony had a scuffle with them in 2006 which was why the initial UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 controllers didn't have the feature.* With a few special exceptions, ElectronicArts has exclusive rights to Porsche vehicles, so in most non-EA games, they are [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute substituted with the RUF brand instead]].* Microsoft owns the concept of [[AchievementSystem Achievements]] for their UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} and Windows products. When Sony wanted to implement the system for their UsefulNotes/PlayStation brand, they got around it with "[[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Trophies]]", which is similar in concept but different in design. * Sony once attempted to trademark the term "LetsPlay". No really. It luckily didn't come to pass, but imagine if it did?* In March of 2016 Nintendo announced they would be trademarking several sounds from ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' including coins, mushrooms, and pipes due to the amount of people using them for different purposes.* A man known as Tim Langdell once sat on the word "edge" as a video game title. He used it enter FrivolousLawsuit after lawsuit... until he tried it against Creator/ElectronicArts and had the copyright taken from him.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Video]]* In late January of 2016, WebVideo/TheFineBrothers controversially announced plans for [[WebVideo/{{React}} React World]], a reaction video network that tried to commercially affiliate the genre itself with their own channel by trademarking the term "React" and copyrighting reaction videos, which would give them a cut of the profits on all videos in the "reaction" genre. This led to a massive backlash against them from viewers and other [=YouTubers=] for supposedly trying to take control of reaction videos on [=YouTube=], and their subscribers started dropping like flies (they're losing around 100 a minute because of their decision). On February 2, they repealed their decision, removing the licenses and subsequent Content ID strikes, but by then it was too late; their subscribers are still falling at a rapid rate and [[CreatorKiller it's unlikely that they'll reclaim them]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' Big Macintosh was originally "Big Apple" and Apple Bloom was originally "Appleseed", but both were changed at the request of Hasbro's legal department for this reason. Creator/LaurenFaust also insisted on using the spelling [="McIntosh"=] instead of "Macintosh" for this same reason; see the Apple example below. Funnily enough, Big Macintosh in-series nickname of "[[UsefulNotes/McDonalds Big Mac]]" isn't all that lawyer-friendly either (the writers have to be careful when and how they use it).* Creator/WarnerBros owns a copyright on the phrase "[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes That's all, folks!]]"* This is not as extreme an example as the TropeNamer, but Creator/DreamWorksAnimation acquired Classic Media in 2012. This means that [=DreamWorks=] owns the rights to ''TheLoneRanger'', ''RockyAndBullwinkle'', ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}''. Disney had to pay [=DreamWorks=] to create a "Lone Ranger" movie. Amusingly, Buena Vista released a few Rocky and Bullwinkle videos in the '90s, and Disney already made movies based on ''Underdog'' and ''George of the Jungle'' long before [=DreamWorks=] acquired Classic Media.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]* Perhaps the best aversion of this trope is any cleaning product by the Swiss company [[http://www.roesch-swiss.ch/ Rösch]], which includes such awesome examples as "Linux" detergent, "Micro&Soft" softener, and "Mac Oxi" stain remover. None of them violate a single trademark law, because they're used for cleaning products, not for computer software. Whether they would run into problems in the United States is open to debate; one question that is considered very strongly in trademark infringement cases is "dilution", namely whether the product alleged to be infringing can reasonably be considered to be using it in a way which would lead to confusion between the two different companies or products. Cleaning products and computers are probably different enough to be help to be non-infringing.* Technology companies in particular are rife with "patent trolls" who own seemingly obvious/general patents and threaten legal action against smaller companies. When they think they have enough balls to do so, they go after bigger ones (and more often than not win). Notable cases where the trolls were defeated (or at least had little success if any):** In 2013, [[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/how-newegg-crushed-the-shopping-cart-patent-and-saved-online-retail/ Soverain Software attempted to sue computer hardware store NewEgg]] because they owned an "electronic shopping cart" patent. They managed to get Amazon.com, so why not? Except [=NewEgg=] fought and brought to light how ridiculously obvious this patent was and won.** [[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/meet-the-nice-guy-lawyers-who-want-1000-per-worker-for-using-scanners/ A law firm is representing a company that has a patent for scanning and saving it electronically]]. It's an ongoing battle.*** This appears to have been at least partially resolved, with the [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/11/07/ftc_patent_troll_settlement_mphj_charged_with_deceptive_sales_claims_and.html FTC slapping the trolls with a complaint.]] * There have been jokes for years about Apple owning lowercase "i" and Microsoft owning the letter "e".* The Canadian government has the camouflage pattern used by the Canadian Forces, called CADPAT [=(CAnadian Disruptive PATtern)=], under copyright. U.S. Marine Corps copied the idea and made a similar pattern (MARPAT) for their own use. Both governments have trademarked their patterns and do not allow "official" versions to be sold to the public. There are knockoff patterns commercially available.** One incredibly important distinction is that MARPAT has the Corps' real trademark, the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor in the pattern. Knockoffs do not, like the Army's UCP (Universal Camouflage Pattern), which actually uses the exact same digital pseudo-random pattern, in different colors.* Indeed, Apple seems to run into this trope a lot:** When the [[AppleMacintosh Macintosh]] came out in 1984, the ads and manuals had a credit to [=McIntosh=] (the people that make amplifiers and such) in them; Apple was later able to claim "Macintosh" as a trademark in itself.** [[Music/TheBeatles Apple Corps/Apple Records]] and Apple had a bit of an argument over their name, but since music and computers were distinct markets, both continued to use the trademark Apple. But when Apple Computer started selling iPod music players and distributing music through their iTunes store, Apple Records took them to court for stepping on their trademark. The Beatles wouldn't appear on iTunes until the settlement nine years later, in which Apple Corps sold their trademarks to Apple, who re-licensed the marks back to Apple Corps.** When they introduced the Mighty Mouse, Apple Computer went to the trouble of licensing [[WesternAnimation/MightyMouse the name]] from CBS even though the device doesn't use the character's likeness at all. Whether or not it would have been legal otherwise is debatable (it'd be hard to confuse a computer mouse for a cartoon mouse), but Apple apparently wanted to play it safe. Unfortunately, a different company had a trademark on Mighty Mouse for computer mice. [[http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9949412-7.html That company sued Apple and CBS in 2008.]]*** For that matter, the first Mighty Mouse cartoon has an ordinary mouse locked in a supermarket, bathing in super soap and eating super cheese, to become . . . [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Super]] .. no, the hastily renamed Mighty Mouse!** In 2004, Apple applied for a patent for an interface that would search across multiple databases. This was when Google just searched the Web. Apple's interface would search the Internet and, let's say, your personal address book at the same time. The patent application didn't detail the program design, just what it would do. After being denied nine times, they got it. Apple can now claim that any kind of search engine that searches across different databases is theirs and theirs alone.** Not to mention, as many have snarkily done, that the entire basis for many of Apple's iPad-related lawsuits seems to be the fact that the flat black rectangle of glass (literally the most minimal design possible) is patented to them.** Funnily enough, [[http://info.abril.com.br/noticias/mercado/inpi-confirma-marca-iphone-para-gradiente-13022013-22.shl Apple DOESN'T have the rights to use the name "iPhone" in Brazil]]. The brazilian company Gradiente registered the name in 2000, when it planned to develop a cell phone with internet access ("internet phone"). Because Apple only wanted to register the name in 2007, the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI) decided that Gradiente would have the rights to use it since they asked first.*** Apple also doesn't have the rights to use the name "iPhone" in China, as it is a trademark for leather products. Apple has been fighting a legal battle with the company that owns this trademark since 2012.** [[http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ipad-design-patent-2012-11 Apple owns the design for rounded corner-shaped electronic devices]] and [[http://gizmodo.com/5950690/apples-latest-slide+to+unlock-patent-basically-prevents-other-phones-from-dragging-anything-around-a-lock-screen slide to unlock]] (though this one was invalidated in Germany).** Back in the '80s, Apple sued Digital Research and Microsoft for implementing [=GUIs=] with overlapping windows.* Amazon has one of these "concept" patents as well. The ''idea'' of One-Click is their property. Although not in the EU where it was deemed too obvious to patent.** They also filed a patent for photos on a white background, as made rather infamous by a segment of ''Series/TheColbertReport''. In practice, the patent will likely only apply to an extremely specific photography setup, making it essentially useless.* Gulf+Western, one-time owner of Creator/{{Paramount}} Pictures, was once parodied on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' as the "Engulf+Devour" corporation, because "We own everything... and if we don't own it, we will."** This was also done by Creator/MelBrooks in ''Film/SilentMovie''... and rather subtly in ''Film/{{Tunnelvision}}'' (specifically, though the name "Engulf+Devour" is never spoken in this one, a movie being reviewed by [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Gene Scallion]] early on is said to be from 20th Century-Paramount, and as Paramount was owned by Gulf+Western at the time...)* A company called [[http://www.smileyworld.com/ SmileyWorld Ltd.]] owns the copyright and trademark on [[HaveANiceDaySmile yellow smiley faces]]. This caused problems in the ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' fan community when Smileyworld refused to let Creator/WarnerBros release memorabilia involving the series' famous bloodstained smiley logo. Smileyworld's copyright can been seen on at the end of the movie's trailers and on its posters.** BTW, [=SmileyWorld=] would like to remind you:---> "Warning! Some people make the mistake of referring generically to icons as "smileys" or "smilies". This is an incorrect use of our "SMILEY®" trademark. Please make sure that you refer to "SMILEY®" only as a trademark for the icons (or other products and services) of SmileyWorld, Ltd.* Walmart tried to trademark their smiley face, but failed due to it being too generic. They have since changed their logo to an asterisk-like starburst they call "The Spark". They brought back the smiley face, but use it in conjunction with The Spark now.* The Religious Technology Center is an organization established by the [[ChurchOfHappyology Church of Scientology]] in 1982 to establish and enforce the trademarks and copyrights pertaining to Scientology. Trademarks of the RTC include "Cause", "Celebrity", "Source", and "Super Power". [[FrivolousLawsuit Scientology's use of international trademark and copyright law]] has been a main source of criticism levied against the organization.* The Egyptian Government copyrighted its antiquities, including the Pyramids and the Great Sphinx.** These are special copyrights, designed to be perpetual, and held by the Egyptian state. The idea is to allow Egypt to profit from its history and give it a claim on stolen artifacts. Many other countries with substantial archaeological treasures, such as China, have similar laws.* UPS actually trademarked the specific shade of brown they use for their trucks and uniforms. Most color trademarks are based on exact Pantone shades or dye/paint formulas, which makes them quite easy to specify.** Creator/{{Mattel}} owns "Franchise/{{Barbie}} Pink" and "Toys/HotWheels Blue".** The British Royal Mail has trademarked the shade of red they use in their logos.*** Royal Mail also owns the trademark on the phrase "Special Delivery" in the United Kingdom.** In some countries, Cadbury owns the trademark for ''the color purple''.*** Cadbury have actually used this to force small chocolate businesses to change the color of their purple boxes and suchlike by suing them.** In Finland, a metal company Fiskars owns a shade of orange, commonly used for the handles on their scissors.** Owens-Corning owns the trademark on the color pink, but only as it applies to fiberglass insulation.** Likewise, the Susan G. Komen Foundation owns the trademark for pink in relation to breast cancer research advocacy.** The John Deere company once tried to trademark the distinctive green shade of its tractors, but their application was denied. Mainly because farmers would have lots of green things and they would like all of their equipment to "match" - seriously!** Tiffany Blue is trademarked.** T-Mobile has not only trademarked the color magenta with reference to mobile phones, it even sued Engadget's mobile phone blog for having a magenta-colored logo.** Kraft's Sanka brand owns the color "Sanka Orange" with respect to decaffeinated coffee.** Christian Louboutin owns the trademark to shoes with a red outsole when the rest of the shoe isn't red.** It should be noted that colour trademarks are typically restricted only to competing organization. They do ''not'' restrict average people from using those colours in their artwork. So go ahead and paint your car "Barbie pink" with "HotWheels blue" polka-dots. Sure, it may garner you plenty of strange looks and chuckles - but it would not get you into any ''legal'' trouble.** Guitar pickup manufacturer [=DiMarzio=] trademarked double cream bobbins on humbucking pickups. This has caused headaches for Gibson because many of their vintage guitars used double cream pickups (which came about from a faulty batch of bobbins that didn't have the black pigment in them) before [=Dimarzio=] started manufacturing and selling them in that color. When reissuing those old instruments, such as when they recreated [[Music/LedZeppelin Jimmy Page's #2 Les Paul]], they have to use black or zebra pickups instead.* The American UsefulNotes/TortReform Association has trademarked the phrase "judicial hellholes". They probably did it so no one else could trademark it and sue them for using the term.* Monster Cable Products, Inc. has initiated trademark infringement lawsuits against ''Series/MonsterGarage'', Monster Energy Drink, Creator/{{Pixar}} (producers of ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''), the Chicago Bears football team (the "Monsters of the Midway"), Fenway Park (for its "Green Monster"), and Monster.com, because MCP owns a commercial trademark on the word "monster".* As noted under "Comic Books", Creator/MarvelComics and Creator/DCComics jointly own the trademark to the words "Super Hero" and "Super Heroes".* Similarly, the mark "Swiss Army Knife" has been owned solely by Victorinox since 2005, when it bought FriendlyRival Wenger but kept it as a separate brand. The two remain the only outfits that [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin sell Swiss Army Knives to the Swiss Army.]]* Paris Hilton tried to trademark her catchphrase "That's hot". It was rejected.** Similarly Donald Trump tried to trademark TheApprentice EliminationCatchphrase "You're fired!" So has a former contestant whom he fired. The application was turned down.* Former basketball coach Pat Riley owns the trademark on the word "threepeat", having filed the paperwork when the Los Angeles Lakers had a chance to pull one off. The Lakers didn't get there. Ironically the Chicago Bulls won their first threepeat after beating the Riley-coached New York Knicks in the Conference Finals.* After the Bulls' first three, a group of investors trademarked "Quad Squad" at great expense; for them, neither hilarity nor wealth ensued.** Likewise, the New England Patriots attempting to trademark "19-0" prior to Super Bowl XLII, something that the rest of the sporting world refuses to let them live down. In fairness, the preemptive copyrighting was probably necessary, as less than a year earlier, the Colorado Rockies coined the term "Rocktober" and then had to pay a lot to buy the mark from some entrepreneur who jumped on it immediately.* Texas A&M has trademarked the phrase "The 12th Man" referring to the home fans at football games. The Seattle Seahawks have a portion of their website dedicated to their "12th MAN", including the "12th MAN Ball", a game ball dedicated to the fans after a crucial win over the New York Giants. The Seahawks clearly state that they use the term under license from Texas A&M.** UT also holds trademarks on [[http://susansternberg.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/ut-logo.jpg their logo]]. This especially became a problem after a local business owner created a "Saw 'Em Off" image, which depicted the logo with the horns missing. Nearly ten years passed before UT really caught on (even though they had been wearing it to games). A new logo was introduced with just enough "fixes" to avoid lawsuits. [[http://viz.cwrl.utexas.edu/files/s72g0z2n.gif (image)]].* The NFL, claiming to own a trademark of the New Orleans Saints catchphrase "Who Dat?", sent cease-and-desist orders to New Orleans-area shirt vendors selling unofficial "Who Dat?" shirts shortly after the Saints entered the Super Bowl. This led to [[SeriousBusiness Louisiana senator David Vitter penning a letter to the NFL]] saying "Who Dat Say You Can't Print Who Dat?" The league also tried, without success, to claim trademark rights to the ''FleurDeLis'', which the Saints have on their helmets.** Speaking of the SuperBowl, the NFL has a trademark on the name of that event, forbidding advertisers and media outlets from using it without explicit permission and forcing them to resort to generic-sounding terms such as "The Big Game". (The league, apparently determined to prove its greed and lust for power knows no limits, has also attempted to trademark the phrase "The Big Game", though they backed down after a huge public backlash.[[labelnote:*]]the fact that the phrase already refers to [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball another annual football game]], which predates not only the Super Bowl also ''the NFL itself'', probably had something to do with said reaction.[[/labelnote]])*** Which led to a number of amusing commercials from companies mocking them for it.---->"Enjoy our fine salsa product while watching football in your '''bowl''' which is '''super'''."---->"It would be '''super'''...to have a '''bowl'''...of Planters nuts while watching the big game!"*** And ''Series/TheColbertReport'' famously used LoopholeAbuse by calling it the "Superb Owl."*** And a [[http://adage.com/article/creativity-pick-of-the-day/muppets-live-tweeting-super-bowl/291435/ teaser]] for Franchise/TheMuppets' Toyota commercial in the 2014 Bowl had Scooter try to say "Super Bowl" but get interrupted by something or other, followed by more LoopholeAbuse with SelfDemonstrating/SwedishChef rendering it as "the Sfërndy Bøøm".** There's also the NFL's infamous "You can watch the game, but you can't talk about it" statement.** Somewhat conversely, the original logo of the Jacksonville Jaguars had to be changed because it was too similar to the logo for Jaguar Cars Ltd.* Tim Tebow has trademarked "Tebowing".* Chicago area broadcaster Bob Sirott trademarked "OJ TV" during OJ Simpson's first major trial. He trademarked it because he didn't want anyone to use it.** Though, in reality, if you don't use a trademark, you lose ownership of it.** In the US, at least, you only have to defend it (such defense may be determined to require actual use, depending on the nature of the mark and the filed usage) and file a periodic maintenance action with the USPTO.* Sportswriters have referred to baseball's World Series as the "Fall Classic" for decades, but in recent years Major League Baseball has trademarked the phrase and now incorporates it into the official World Series logo each year,* Soon after passenger Todd Beamer of Flight 93 uttered the words "Let's roll" on his cellphone[[labelnote:*]]Beamer helped rally the passengers to attack the hijackers, ultimately forcing the plane down in a field in Pennsylvania and probably averting the destruction of another major building[[/labelnote]], his wife tried to trademark the phrase, and actually attempted to sue Music/NeilYoung for his use of the phrase in a song about the 9-11 attacks. Her petition for trademark was denied. Newark entrepreneur Iman Abdallah had filed first, planning to put it on t-shirts and coffee cups to raise money for the families. Eventually the Todd M. Beamer Foundation was granted a limited trademark for use on audio recordings.* Oleg Teterin, president of the Russian mobile ad company Superfone, has trademarked this: :) and this ;) and because of the similarity doctrine used in trademark law, all other smiley emoticons created by using punctuation marks. He says he won't go after private individuals who use emoticons in email and such, but will hunt down and sue companies who do. The actual chances of him holding on to the trademark are very, very slim.* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Stoller Leo Stoller]], a self-styled "intellectual property entrepreneur", trademarked such words and phrases as Stealth, Sentra, Dark Star, Air Frame, Stradivarius, Havoc, Chestnut, Trillium, White Line Fever, Fire Power, Love Your Body, Terminator, and many, many more. Once he trademarked a word or phrase, he immediately launched million-dollar lawsuits against people and companies who were casually using those words. His lawsuits have consistently been laughed out of court.* This has brought up much concern for the lawyers of Hasbro, in particular due to their ''{{Transformers}}'' line having tons of characters with descriptive and generic names. For instance, the character [[SoulBrotha Jazz]], who is an Autobot, is now always sold as "Autobot Jazz", because while there are plenty of other places the word "Jazz" could be trademarked, there's virtually no other place where the phrase "Autobot Jazz" could be shoehorned in. Other characters' names had to be changed because someone ''else'' had already trademarked them; this is why [[HotBlooded Hot Rod]] is now referred to as "Rodimus"--yes, someone managed to ''trademark "hot rod"''.** In an amusing bit of {{irony}}, Hasbro lost the ability to use "[[KidAppealCharacter Bumblebee]]" during ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', because they didn't produce a Bumblebee during the series where ''everyone turned into animals''. A bumblebee named Bumblebee would have made even "Cheetor" and "Rhinox" look like clever names, and a heroic insect character wouldn't have fit with their theming anyway (we got the evil [[ButtMonkey Waspinator]] instead).** Also, Hasbro has to describe Transformers as toys which ''convert'', because if they ''transform'' then "transformer" is just a bland ''description'', which cannot be trademarked.** Hasbro also threatened to sue humorist Randy Cassingham to stop his sales of "Get Out of Hell Free" cards, claiming they violated intellectual property of the game TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}. Details can be found [[http://www.thisistrue.com/hasbro.html here]].** Hasbro also lost the trademark to most of the G1 MyLittlePony characters' names due to lack of usage.** This proved to be a problem when [[AscendedFanon canonising]] several fanon names for ponies, as many of them were too generic. Most of them just got another name tagged along with them, such as Lyra "Heartstrings" or Octavia "Melody", but some like Bon Bon (already trademarked by the Hershey Company) or Carrot Top (trademarked by the comedian Scott Thompson) had to be given totally new names.* Though they have no trademark on it, Creator/CirqueDuSoleil unsuccessfully sued Neil Goldberg's Cirque Productions for using the word ''cirque'' (French for "circus") in their name and the titles of its ''Cirque Dreams'' series of FollowTheLeader shows.* The publishing company holding the trademarks "ComicBook/{{Asterix}}" and "Obelix" went to court, forcing the open source project [=MobiliX=] to rename to [=TuxMobil=].* Creator/HarlanEllison® has trademarked his own name.** This is somewhat common for some celebrities -- athletes, musicians, NASCAR drivers, and porn stars, particularly. Note though, that trademarks only apply to certain uses of a name--just because Harlan Ellison is trademarked doesn't mean you can't name your child Harlan Ellison. It simply limits the use of the name in certain mediums (types of company titles, mostly).** Music/{{Prince}} got into trouble with this, when the trademark for his name got assigned to his record label, forcing him to adopt a symbol as his official name.* Creator/TomClancy [[http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17950 sold the rights to use his name]] to UbiSoft.* Sometimes, this is somewhat of a NecessaryEvil due to things [[http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/01/05/fake-brands-shopping-centre-set-to-open-in-china-pictures-115875-21018152/ like these]].* In 2003, Creator/SpikeLee was granted a temporary restraining order which prevented "The New TNN" from renaming themselves "Spike TV". You know how it got over with the mainstream press, which joked that Lee might as well sue the following: Spike Jonze, Spike Jones, Spike from ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'', ''{{Peanuts}}'', ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', etc.* Nadya Suleman, famous for being the mother of octuplets, applied for the trademark "Octomom". She hates the name, and wants to own it so no one else can use it.* ''Music/{{KISS}}'' has not only trademarked their name, logo, and facial makeup designs, but bassist Gene Simmons has trademarked his name, his signature, and the image of [[ThiefBag a sack of money with a dollar sign on it]]. He also gets royalties from Creator/GeffenRecords from the sales of the album ''Bandwagonesque'' by the Scottish alternative band Teenage Fanclub because that album uses the image as well.* In 1978, Digital Equipment Corporation came out with the VAX line of mini-computers. In the UK, there was a line of vacuum cleaners named VAX. No problem so far, as the two trademarks didn't clash for reasons explained in the intro. But DEC's competitors had a great deal of fun borrowing the advertising slogans from the vacuum cleaner company, such as "Nothing sucks like a VAX".* "Charles Darwin" is a trademark when applied to roses, according to a sign in the Bronx Botanical Garden.* Kellogg's successfully sued Exxon/Esso for their use of a tiger mascot, claiming it infringed on Tony the Tiger. Though Exxon could still use the mascot, there are strict limits on how it uses it; all it can do is smile and wave. The issue was "tiger" brand food products sold in Exxon's convenience stores.* Kohler, the manufacturer of plumbing products and fixtures has trademarked the names of the colors that their products are stained, and are very picky about their use.* Fox News claimed the phrase "Fair and Balanced" and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_v._Franken sued now-US Senator Al Franken]] for using the phrase in connection with his book, ''Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair And Balanced Look At The Right''. In response, Franken joked that he had trademarked the word "funny", and that Fox had infringed his intellectual property rights by characterizing him as "unfunny". The judge deemed Fox's lawsuit "wholly without merit" and Fox thereupon withdrew it before the judge could rule on whether it was even a valid trademark.* [[http://tigsource.com/articles/2009/05/29/tim-langdell-the-edge-of-insanity Tim]] [[http://tigsource.com/articles/2009/06/09/tim-langdell-and-edge-part-two Langdell]]. A founder of a video game company that hasn't actually produced a single game in over 20 years, the man supposedly owns the trademark of a word "Edge", [[http://www.tigsource.com/pages/edge-games and has claimed trademarks on majority of things that just happen to have "Edge" in a title]], with [[http://kotaku.com/5312534/trademark-troll-is-at-it-again one incident]] involving Fuzzyeyes's upcoming title ''Edge Of Twilight''. To make the hypocrisy even more jarring, not only does the current official logo of his "company" greatly resembles the one of Edge Magazine, but [[http://www.edgegames.com/ its official website]] even has a blurb of "[[VideoGame/MirrorsEdge Mirrors]]". He is a reason why ''VideoGame/SoulEdge'' is the only named such game in its series.** [[http://gamepolitics.com/2010/10/07/edge-games-stripped-trademarks-could-face-fraud-charges#.UJKdE7SRPzI He actually lost the trademark in 2010 and he was countersued by EA.]]* Creator/TheBBC owns the trademark for the classic "[[Series/DoctorWho police box]]", because under UK law you only have the rights to a trade mark if you've used it as a brand identity for products and services. Not only had the Metropolitan Police stopped using real police boxes by 1969, but they had never used it as a brand identifier in the required way.* While Adobe's trademarks are quite normal, the [[http://www.adobe.com/misc/trade.html guidelines for using them]], are very specific.** A large part of it is that most "Photoshopping" is actually done using (the cheaper) Paint Shop Pro. The best way to piss off Adobe's lawyers is to say you photoshopped something in Paint.NET, Paint Shop Pro, etc.—or even in ''Adobe's own Photoshop Elements''. Similarly, saying that you Googled something on Yahoo is [[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/do-you-google.html "Bad. Very, very bad"]].** More likely it's an attempt to prevent their trademarks from being genericized. In fact, it's necessary for the trademark holder to show they're taking such steps, as if a trademark becomes generic enough without any effort to prevent it, that company may no longer be able to keep that trademark.** [[http://www.little-trees.com/ Car-Freshner Corporation]] ran a full-page ad in a Photoshop magazine about how the "Little Tree" is their logo, even if you recolor it or decorate it in any way.* Many real names are registered trade marks, including Creator/BeatrixPotter® and ElvisPresley®. Dead celebrities whose names get licensed a lot.** Elvis Presley Enterprises not only has his name trademarked, but they also hold a trademark over his likeness. In other words, even if you don't have the clearances to use Elvis' music catalog in your work, you would still have to clear the use of Elvis or a look-alike as a distinct character.** The same situation applies with Marilyn Monroe. Creator/WilliamsElectronics' ''Pinball/{{Taxi}}'' {{Pinball}} renamed their Marilyn lookalike to "Lola" and turned her into a brunette to avoid a lawsuit.* In 2008, three jailed members of the domestic terrorist/secessionist group the Montana Freemen tried to charge the US government millions of dollars for using their names, which they claimed they had copyrighted. The government, in response, added 15 years each to their sentences for conspiring to impede the duties of federal prison officers and extortion.* There is piano sheet music for "Rhapsody In Blue" by George Gershwin®. [[http://musicalassumptions.blogspot.com/2007/03/gershwin-as-trademark.html]]* Harley-Davidson attempted to trademark ''the sound'' of their motorcycles revving: "The mark consists of the exhaust sound of applicant's motorcycles, produced by V-twin, common crankpin motorcycle engines when the goods are in use." Nine other motorcycle manufacturers opposed the trademark because they use the same type of common crankpin[[note]]"Common" here is not implying that it's a "common", as in "generic", design, but a type of design wherein both connecting rods overlap, sharing a "common" crankpin by using a fork-and-blade design[[/note]] V-twin engines and thus made the same sound. The courts, recognizing Harley-Davidson's application for a trademark as being what it was (an end-run attempt to put its competition out of business) denied the application.** However there was at one point a trademark on the sound of a Harley-Davidson engine. The application was not based on the design of the motorcycle engine, but the noise as stock sound effect. The holder of the trademark asks for very little in royalties compared to most trademark holders and it seems to only apply in Australia and New Zealand territories.** Not all engines (particularly with smaller layouts like the two cylinders in a motorcycle) have perfectly even timing between power strokes. With two cylinders using four-stroke cycles, there should be a power stroke every 360 degrees of crankshaft rotation (720 deg. per cycle divided by 2 cylinders equals 360 degrees). However, Harley's distinctive sound comes from the fact that one cylinder fires, then the second one fires only 270 degrees later, leaving 450 degrees until the first one fires again. So, they are attempting to trademark a mechanical design that they use and no one else does, particularly a design that provides a very distinctive sound.* MetroGoldwynMayer naturally trademarked the image of their mascot, Leo the Lion, roaring. But they also trademarked the ''sound'' of his roar.** This makes sense, as neither the visual nor the sound of the Leo's roar are actually accurate depictions of a lion's roar.* NBC has trademarked its distinctive "dun DUN duhn..." three tone chime ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBFe1UDpytA&feature=related listen here]]).* Similarly, Intel trademarked its "dun dun DUN duhn..." four tone chime (the one that accompanied the "Intel Inside" insignia, which was also trademarked.) ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHjKDdXCR3I Listen here]]).* The Harlem Globetrotters have control over the 1949 recording of the song "Sweet Georgia Brown" by Brother Bones and His Shadows, which they have used as their theme song since about 1950 and trademarked in 1952. * The "deep note" used to notify you that the THX did the sound for the movie you are watching has been trademarked.* So has the "glissando followed by the words A T and T" been registered as a sound mark.* SugarWiki/{{Toblerone}} trademarked the triangular wedge shape as it applies to chocolate bars.* The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' and other journalism journals often run ads from major companies (particularly Coca-Cola, Xerox and Johnson and Johnson) imploring reporters and writers to shy away from the use of brand names as generic terms.** In this, they ''do'', surprisingly, have a point, as both "Aspirin" and "Cellophane", which were originally trademarks, were ruled to have been abandoned [[BrandNameTakeover because of their widespread acceptance as generic terms.]] Also laundromat and escalator.* CBS Corporation (''Franchise/StarTrek'') has a registered trademark on the words, "USS Enterprise". Never mind the first USS ''Enterprise'' was an armed sloop of the U.S. Continental Navy in 1775 and numerous U.S. Navy ships up to the present. ** Paramount, the previous owners, had tried suing the Navy to keep them from selling items with the words "USS Enterprise" on them.** As of this writing the Aircraft carrier CVN-65 USS ''Enterprise'' has been retired and its replacement the CVN-80 USS ''Enterprise'' isn't scheduled for launch until 2025. Time will tell if CBS will contest the rights to the name. * Despair, Inc., publishers of the [[MotivationalPoster Demotivator posters]], trademarked the "frowny", :-(, and [[http://www.despair.com/demotivators/misfortunate.html issued a mock press release]] promising to litigate all those who infringed upon it, even in private emails.* A barely-known fact- the word "tremolo" for many years was a trademark of the Fender company-others used the term "vibrato arm" instead. (Which is ironic, as the word "tremolo," as used to describe the pitch-changing mechanism on a guitar, is incorrect - "tremolo" refers to a variation in ''volume'', not pitch - and so the other companies ''without'' the trademark ended up with the use of the correct word.)* [[Creator/GeorgeLucas Lucasfilm]] owns the rights to the word "[[Franchise/StarWars Droid]]." Verizon Wireless had to get permission to use it as the name of the first Droid smartphone released in 2009 by Motorola. Verizon has since released several other Droid models, presumably under the same agreement.** Related to this, Carrie Fisher stated that Lucas owned the likenesses of the Star Wars characters, prompting her to joke that "every time [she] looks in the mirror [she] owes George a couple bucks". Of course, now Disney owns Lucasfilm...* In a German fanfiction community called [[http://www.fanfiktion.de Fanfiktion.de]], the use of the world "Lichtbändiger" (translates to: [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Lightbender]]) was forbidden, due to an company producing sunglasses under that name threatening to sue the website. Cue unleashing of the fury of a lot of Avatar fanfic writers, who had to change their stories.* Nestlé [[http://blogs.bnet.com/businesstips/?p=6786 all but committed corporate suicide]] on Facebook when someone not only thought it was a good idea to delete the comments of anyone using an altered version of their logo for a profile pic, but act like a bratty teenage girl getting into an argument in the comments section of a Website/YouTube video. Terrible business practice or a convincing practical joke? Either way, they're a laughing stock.** Nestlé also attempted to sue a Danish family company (which existed long before they took up their trademark), which produce chocolate, but with a Danish family name, that you would have to squint your eyes very hard together, to even think it spelled out Nestlé.* Then there is the infamous ''Creator/{{Universal}} v. Creator/{{Nintendo}}'' lawsuit, where Universal claimed the Nintendo's ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' was a violation of their ownership of ''Film/KingKong''. After several months of Universal refusing to officially seek legal proceedings, instead simply trying to get Nintendo to agree to a settlement without litigation, a certain lawyer working for Nintendo discovered that Universal did not own the trademark rights to ''Film/KingKong'', but that they had simultaneously argued that he was in the public domain so they could make some cheesy B movies of him in the '70s and that they owned all rights pertaining to him. The court case officially declared that the character VideoGame/DonkeyKong could not be confused with Film/KingKong, and that while Universal Studios owned the majority of rights, with the remainder being divided between creator Richard Cooper, RKO Studios, and the Dino De Laurentiis company, they did not hold exclusive rights to the name and character as they had claimed. Nintendo then proceeded to successfully sue Universal into the ground. Oh and Nintendo went on to thank the lawyer that found it out by first hiring him as their main consul in America, then later naming a [[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} certain character]] after him. While firmly planting Nintendo in the "Don't Mess with Us" category in the U.S., this case did have one unfortunate downside for gamers: Universal still wanted a game company to make licensed games for their films. And after failing to get Nintendo, Universal bought LJN.* In 1975, Creator/{{NBC}} unveiled its new logo, a stylized letter "N" formed from two trapezoids, for which it had spent $750,000 to hire a graphics firm to design, print all-new stationery, etc. As it turned out, Nebraska Educational Television was already using an almost identical logo (which had cost ''them'' only $100 to create). In order to be able to keep the new logo, NBC settled with Nebraska Educational Television by providing them with equipment and cash worth over $850,000.** NBC would eventually combine the N with their second 11-feathered peacock design. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1979_NBC_logo.svg]]** ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', an American staple on NBC, made fun of the redesign when it was happening by showcasing on the Weekend Update segment fictional rejected logo concepts, each of which was a more angular, extreme, avant-garde combination of flat red and blue shapes. NBC reintegrated the peacock to the logo a mere three years later, and while not exactly like the first colour-flaunting 1956 peacock, it's highly evocative thereof.* German comedian Hubertus Albers has trademarked his alter ego's name Atze Schröder. In an inversion, he actually sends cease-and-desist letters to people who use his ''real'' name (but oddly enough not the very trademark agency which shows it to everyone who asks).* Just as silly is another German comedian, Mario Barth. He trademarked one of his slogans ("Nichts reimt sich auf Uschi" - "Nothing rhymes [the name] Uschi", a play on the easily found rhyme "Muschi" - "pussy"). So far so good, but unbeknownst to him the very same slogan had been used 20 years ago (albeit not trademarked) and printed on shirts by other comedians. He tried to sue people sporting those old shirts for copyright infringement.* The [[http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/LookAround/advertspot_cocacola9.htm distinctively-contoured Coke bottle]] is trademarked to The Coca-Cola Company. They spent a lot of time designing a bottle that would be both instantly recognizable as a Coca-Cola container, nor mistakable as anything ''but'' a Coca-Cola bottle (''and'' wouldn't fall over; the original designs were unstable). Notice that even the plastic two-liter bottles of Coca-Cola (and other Coke Company products) resemble the famous contour bottle, while every other brand's two-liter bottles look alike, particularly plain, straight edges.* Creator/{{Toho}}'s lawyers are about as vicious and terrifying as the {{Kaiju}} they created, having copyrighted and/or trademarked every aspect of Franchise/{{Godzilla}} from his likeness to his roar. They will often sue groups for using the suffix [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-zilla -zilla]], especially if it comes along with dinosaur imagery. This hasn't stopped various cartoons, video-games, and anime from [[StockSoundEffects using his roar for giant monsters]] without asking Toho's permission and getting away with it.** This was the exact reason why Music/{{Gojira}} changed to the Japanese name of the movie when they got signed to a label, after being Godzilla on a few demo tapes. ** [[http://www.mozilla.org/ Mozilla]], most famed for the Mozilla Firefox web browser, treads carefully around them, but has so far escaped their wrath by being a non-profit foundation.* [[http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/annanicholas/10140819/the-sun-has-an-owner-and-she’s-spanish/ A Spanish woman claimed ownership of the sun]], and wanted to charge for all the people using it. As the article suggests, she seems to have forgotten the risk of being sued due to her property causing injuries and deaths via sunstroke and cancer...* "[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons D'oh!]]" is trademarked by 20th Century Fox.** In a hilarious showing of Hypocritical Humor, The Simpson's once invoked this trope using the phrase, when a character portrayed as a lawyer for Disney tells Homer that they own the exact note he always uses with the phrase.* Creator/GamesWorkshop owns copyright for the term "SpaceMarines" and various other things relating to ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''.** They also claim ownership of a large amount of terms ranging from the specific (Tzeetch and Cadian, for example) to the more everyday (Epic and Inferno). They also claim the Double Headed Eagle motif, despite the fact that was in use by various nations ''nearly a millennium ago''.** Perhaps the oddest thing about all this is that they were [[http://www.whalliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=326733 encouraging certain sites beforehand]].** They didn't start trying to beat people up with their lawyers until said lawyers had to deal with the infamous Saul Zaentz, who owned the film, stage, and merchandise rights to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' (and who sued Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival's John Fogerty for plagiarizing himself, and was essentially the largest the reason it took Creator/PeterJackson almost a decade to finally be allowed to adapt ''Literature/TheHobbit'' after doing the LotR movies).* Wonderfully inverted by UsefulNotes/EurovisionSongContest winner Dima Bilan (born as Dmitry), who changed his legal name so he matched his artistic name to avoid claims of ownership of the second by his late producer's family.* There is a possibly apocryphal story that Mick Jagger tried to use copyright law to prevent any other musicians from using stage names related to cutting implements (a "jagger" is a type of knife). This was prompted by David Jones' success under the name Music/DavidBowie (a "bowie" is another type of knife).* The company owning the copyright for ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' managed to essentially trademark a ''pronunciation'', Curly's "Soitenly!"* Nintendo trademarked the phrase "It's on like VideoGame/DonkeyKong!" for use in ads for ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns''.* The Hebrew University in Jerusalem once tried mobile phone company Pelephone for using the name [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein]] (as a synonym for ‘genius’, as it owns the copyright to his name) on an ad for their mobile internet service saying, ‘Suddenly everyone’s an Einstein.’** This may also be why in the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS port of ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', the line "Hey, Einstein, I'm on your side!" had "Einstein" changed to "genius", since Albert Einstein's name is trademarked. Though as Nintendo Power pointed out, [[OrphanedEtymology there probably isn't a well-known genius with the name of Einstein in the Lylat Galaxy.]]* Gene patents. Sure, you can claim that once separated from a body so that they can be looked at, they aren't really part of the human body or whatever...but it's STILL HUMAN (or whatever) GENETIC MATERIAL. This not only tends to impede research for disease treatment, but also can be more than a bit scary when you realize that parts of your genome are actually owned by various entities...** This is probably changing in the USA, due to the ''Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc.'' Supreme Court decision in March 2012, and ''Assn. for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics'', in which the Supreme Court ruled that [[http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/politics/scotus-genes human genes cannot be patented]].* Likewise, there are software patents, which often patent well known algorithms. In one case, the source code of ''VideoGame/{{Doom 3}}'' had to be changed because it was later discovered that someone had independently come up with their graphics algorithm and patented it.* Victoria Beckham once tried to sue English football club Peterborough United, because they were selling scarves, mugs and other items marked 'The Posh'. The lawsuit was dropped after it was pointed out to her that the club (or its predecessors) has been using that nickname since 1921.* Partway through the "Occupy Wall Street" protests of 2011, a law-minded couple attempted to copyright the name "Occupy [city]" and related phrases. Their explanation for this was that they weren't doing it out of corporate greed, but rather so that "One Percenter" corporations couldn't do that themselves and hawk shirts and pre-made signs, thus undermining the point of the protests.* Plenty of online stores have been menaced by a man claiming to own a copyright on the yellow "Caution!" sign. * Arkham House Publishers claims to own the rights to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Whether they actually do or not is a controversy in and of itself.* The Susan G. Komen Foundation trademarked "for the cure" and the color pink with respect to breast cancer awareness related products -- not pink in general. But they have been known to sue small business and even other, but smaller, breast cancer charities that used the color pink or other general cancer charities that use the phrase "For the Cure", not knowing that Komen owns these trademarks.* The Red Cross, by international treaty, owns the rights to a red cross. Using it in your video game to show medical supplies or TheMedic or in any other use is illegal. Prior to 1973, ambulances in the United States and elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere were typically marked with a safety orange cross, differing from the red cross only in its hue. Toys and paintings of ambulances commonly ignored even that nuance, instead using a red cross. After protests from the American Red Cross that the safety orange cross was insufficiently distinguishable from the protected Red Cross symbol, the U.S. Department of Transportation developed the Blue Star of Life as a replacement for the safety orange cross.** This one is slightly different, though. The Red Cross is not quite doing it to be jerks, but because the treaty that the symbol is protected under is [[TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar the Geneva and Hague Conventions on the conduct of war]], and the reason it is protected is that it denotes critical infrastructure and personnel who are protected because they are connected with the treatment of casualties — i.e. the presence of a Red Cross on a legitimately protected person, vehicle or site makes it a war crime to fire upon or otherwise attack that person, vehicle or site, and conversely, falsely wearing or displaying a red cross as camouflage is ''itself'' a war crime. The fear is that overuse and misuse of the symbol could dilute the intended meaning of the symbol to a point where troops may not see it as protected anymore in a time of war.** On August 9, 2007, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) filed suit against the American Red Cross alleging trademark infringement. J&J released a statement to the public on August 8, 2007 detailing its decision to file suit, claiming prior rights to the emblem. After the court rejected the substance of Johnson & Johnson's complaint, the parties ultimately settled their differences, and the American Red Cross remains free to use its emblem in the sale of life-saving, disaster preparedness, and other mission-related products. * ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'' originally had a logo of five rings interlocking to form a circle. Then the Olympics Committee informed [=L5R=]'s makers AEG that they had a trademark on ALL logos featuring five interlocking rings in any configuration - by an act of Congress, no less. This forced AEG to redesign the card backs with a new logo (five non-intersecting coins), with all the problems one would expect from changing the card backs on a CollectibleCardGame. AEG attempted to mitigate the damage by giving out large numbers of opaque-backed card sleeves at conventions, and the first expansion to feature the new card backs included a full set of sleeves in every starter deck at a loss.* The family of Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting victim Victoria Leigh Soto have trademarked her name and face so "conspiracy debunking" websites that rebuke the legitimacy of the tragedy could not use them.* The makers of Listerine mouthwash own the trademark to the shape of its bottle.* British telecommunications company Sky UK Limited owns a trademark on the word "Sky". ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'' developer fought a three-year long legal battle with this company over the usage of the word Sky in the game's title, and was luckily allowed to use it. Microsoft was not so lucky, and had to change the name of its cloud storage service from [=SkyDrive=] to [=OneDrive=].[[/folder]]

!!InUniverse Examples:

[[folder:Audio Play]]* Creator/TheFiresignTheatre's album ''Give Me Immortality... Or Give Me Death!'' has repeated promos from "U.S. Plus": "We own the idea... of America." Toward the end of the play they're announcing "We own the idea... of the idea of America."[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]* The [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] comic book supervillain, The Prankster, once copyrighted all of the letters in the alphabet and tried to extract royalties from anyone who used them while writing.* Also in Franchise/TheDCU, [[ComicBook/LexLuthor Lexcorp]] owns a little bit of everything. In fact, one of their sneakier schemes against [[{{Superman}} the Man of Steel]] was an attempt to trademark the word "Superman" that would have legally forced Superman to pay them a royalty every time he appeared in public.** This also became a minor plot point in ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' storyline - Luthor attempted to buy Superboy using Matrix Supergirl as "bait". He almost fell for it before he was wooed in by Rex Leech. When a server attempted to stop Steel and the Eradicator from using the shield, the Eradicator tried to flash fry him, forcing Steel to pull him out. When the same guy approached the returned Superman, Supes did things a lot more simpler - he confronted the clone and told him give it back.* A similar event took place in the pages of ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan''. The Kingpin bought the rights to the Spider-Man docudrama that was produced earlier in the comics and all related merchandise. Since he is a crime lord, it proves to be a win win for him. If Spider-Man fights his goons, he makes money. If Spider-Man hangs up the tights, no one will fight his goons, and he will make money.** If Spidey quit the Kingpin was going to hire an actor to take his place.* In her column ''You'll All Be Sorry'', Creator/GailSimone parodied the legal dispute between Creator/NeilGaiman and Todd [=McFarlane=] with an article about [=McFarlane=] copyrighting Gaiman's name and likeness.* In the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' story "The Laughing Fish", the Joker dumped a version of his toxin into the local waters, and then tried to claim ownership of all the fish that now sported Joker faces. When the patent office explains that patent law ''doesn't'' work like this, he responds with attempted murder.* A ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' treatment of ''{{Peanuts}}'' at the height of its cultural success has Charlie Brown as a megalomaniac executive moving to sue Planter's for using their name on its product, raving "I don't care WHO came first!"* {{Deadpool}}'s symbol is very clearly created to mockingly look like a marketing logo-- which it technically is.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]* In ''WesternAnimation/BeeMovie'', the bees sue rock star Gordon Sumner over his use of the name "[[Music/ThePolice Sting]]".[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* Will Ferguson's ''Happiness™'' is about a self-help book that actually works, turning people into happy zombies and making the publishing company so much money that they trademark the word "happiness".* The sci-fi short story ''[[http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/liu_01_11/ Tying Knots]]'' by Ken Liu. An American researcher goes to an isolated village and learns their method of encoding stories in knots to develop methods of manipulating proteins. He pays them in genetically-engineered rice which can grow in the now-reduced rainfall, but the seeds are sterile (forcing the villages to buy more rice each year) so the villages can't steal the intellectual property from those who invented it. This however does not apply to the 'old knowledge' the researcher has taken from the villagers.** This is TruthInTelevision, as many commercial agriculture companies make sterile seeds that produce infertile produce to keep farmers buying new seed each year and then sell the seed in the developing world. (And also to assuage fears that things could GoHorriblyWrong, leading to runaway mutant, um, rice.)* In ''Literature/{{Temps}}'', one of the newspaper clippings between the stories was a series of articles about a paranormal concert pianist with a fondness for using his RealityWarper powers to "enhance" his music with special effects. One article stated that he was being sued by Disney for breaching their copyright while performing "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" ... and that the concert hall had been closed down by a specialist team of pest-control officers.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Dalek", it was revealed that billionaire Henry van Statten "owned the Internet".* In ''Series/{{Psychoville}}'' the man in charge of the production of ''Snow White'' says that they are forbidden to use the names in the Disney film for the dwarves. This is actually [[TruthInTelevision correct]] -- Disney originated those names and character designs for the dwarves, so it owns them.* In the special ''EretzNehederet'' episode dedicated to the massive summer 2011 protests in Israel, a tycoon impression (Eran Zarkhovich with an VideoGame/AngryBirds-esque pig for a head) was featured. Host Eyal Kitsis went over a list of his assets, which included, among many others, the phrase ‘Holy shit, get a load of those tits!’ and the word ‘morning’.* In ''Series/HannahMontana'', Rico has somehow obtained the exclusive North American rights for both his EvilLaugh and his "Hey-oh!" {{Catchphrase}}.* The science fiction series ''Series/BabylonFive'' has an off-hand mention to Disney ''Planet''. Gets expanded upon in the rpg: it's a lifeless moon in the Orion system that Disney is transforming in a ''planet-sized theme park''. So far they've built 'only' one city-sized domed attraction, but given it's already a financial success...* On ''Series/{{Powers}}'' many superheroes earn money through merchandising and there are many powerful marketing firms who specialize in promoting superhero brands. When [[spoiler: Retro Girl]] is killed, a new heroine tries to step into her shoes and starts to use the name and costume. The marketing company execs are furious and are prepared to sue for trademark infringement but the company president tells them to stop being idiots. If they can sign the new superheroine to a contract, they can promote the LegacyCharacter aspects and make even more money.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]* Suggested in Music/PeterSchilling's "(Let's Play) U.S.A.":-->"Did you hear the master plan? One nation under Disneyland."* Imagined in Carla Ulbrich's "If I Had The Copyright (the [[PrecisionFStrike F-Word]] Song)":-->If I had the copyright on the word ''[[BleepDammit (bleep)]]''\\I'd say "''[[TakeThisJobAndShoveIt (bleep)]]'' [[TakeThisJobAndShoveIt this job]] and yourself, you dumb ''(bleep)''!"[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]* A CloseToHome strip made fun out of this: a man and his wife are watching the sunset on a beach, only the sun has mouse ears. Caption: ''"For crying out loud, is there anything they don't own?"''* In one ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' cartoon, Jason tried to copyright 1 and 0 so that any song released on the Internet would be pirating his work.** "3Com only purchased rights to the numbers '3' '5' and '9', Intel owns '4', '8', '6', and '2'. '0' and '1' are still in the public domain." -- Donald Becker* The Norwegian comic strip Fakta fra Verden[[labelnote:*]][[BlatantLies meaning facts from the world]][[/labelnote]] claimed it was now legal for companies to trademark common words. So Microsoft, Pepsi and other big corporations trademark all the "good" words, like Great, Excellent and Fantastic. It then goes into detail about how smaller companies must make do with less nice words, or words that make no sense compared to what they're selling. However, there are still plenty of negative words that have not been copyrighted yet.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]* After being expunged from Wrestling/TheBeautifulPeople, Wrestling/MadisonRayne tried to trademark the name and start her own Beautiful People.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* In one of the technology quotes in ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'', [[CorruptCorporateExecutive CEO Suzanne Fielding]] advocates patenting ''alien genetic material'' (and, somewhat more reasonably, ''hybrid'' genetics). Whether any of the other factions are inclined to uphold her patents is another matter, of course.* In ''VideoGame/GameDevTycoon'', your company might get harassed by patent trolls claiming copyright over trivially basic gaming concepts. You can either take them to court, settle out of court, or [[InternetCounterattack rally your fans in your defense]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]* Francis of ''Webcomic/PvP'' attempts to trademark a black pixel and white pixel similar to Jason's example above.* In [[http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/god/index.html God(tm)]], the intellectual property of God and all related characters are owned by a certain [[http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/god/01/GOD01_12.htm animation, media, and theme park corporation]].* In ''WebComic/OzyAndMillie'', fire is the intellectual property of dragons, who reap a side benefit of their ownership being extended whenever Disney extends its copyright on Mickey Mouse.* In ''WebComic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella'', Wonderella ''weaponized'' this trope when she tricked Santa Claus (who was trying to kill her because she killed him) into getting trapped in the Disney vault. ''Jesus'' was horrified by that.-->'''Jesus:''' Santa Claus is now property of the Walt Disney Company.-->'''Wonderella:''' ''And Disney '''never''' gives back.''--[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]* During a season finale of ''WebOriginal/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'', a battle between Stan Lee and Jim Henson is interrupted by [[Creator/WaltDisney the Disneyland-Lord of their Intellectual Property.]] Further down the line during the rap, he also points out that he owns the entire series. * In the Podcast/RiffTrax precursor The Film Crew, there's this [[{{MST}} riff]] from Michael J. Nelson during ''Hollywood After Dark'':-->'''Mike:''' Hi, I'm a Disney lawyer. This junkyard is a violation of Disney's trademark of Trashy [=McJunkPile=], a character we've never shown but copyrighted anyway.* [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/microsoft-patents-ones-zeroes,599/ Bill Gates already owns ones and zeros]] and, since everything can be expressed in binary, all of existence.* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'':** In "Out with the Old Characters", Dr. Whooves says he changed his name to Time Turner to comply with copyright.-->'''Apple Bloom:''' Oh, kind of like Timmy Turner, from [[WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents that other cartoon]]!\\'''Time Turner:''' Oh dammit!** In "Copywrong", the characters comment on the use of a SuspiciouslySimilarSong in the soundtrack, and conclude that it's to avoid running afoul of copyright. Then Pinkie mentions [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Nazguls]], and the video suddenly stops as the creator gets beaten by the Copyright Police.* Parodied in the sixth episode of ''WebVideo/FriendshipIsWitchcraft''. The ColdOpen states that the word "apple" and the image of an apple are legal copyrights of the Dole Corporation and that the episode was "modified from its original version to keep within good legal standing". Throughout the episode, all onscreen apples are blurred out and any mention of the word apple is [[ClumsyCopyrightCensorship clumsily censored by the name of another fruit.]] This censorship even extends into Applejack's name and the "Buy some apples!" gag.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Momcorp apparently holds the trademarks on "apple pie," "screen door" and "love".** In another episode, the only product names that aren't trademarked are Popplers and Zitzels.* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', the Blue-Haired Lawyer character shows up a lot whenever someone "violates" a copyright:** The school fair used the tagline "The Happiest Place on Earth", which is copyrighted by Disney.-->'''Skinner:''' But it's just a small school fair.\\'''BHL:''' And it's heading for a very big lawsuit. You made a big mistake here.\\'''Skinner:''' Well, so did you: You made an ex-Green Beret mad.\\''(proceeds to punch the lawyer in the throat and demolish his goons)''\\'''Skinner:''' Copyright ... expired.** Grandpa is imitating Charlie Chaplin's fork-and-potato dance to impress his girlfriend.-->'''BHL:''' Mr. Simpson, I represent the estate of Charles Chaplin. I have here a court document ordering an immediate halt to this unauthorised impersonation. Boys!\\''(goons throw away the forks and stomp on the potatoes)''** And again after Grandpa stands under a streetlamp, saying "Goodnight, Mrs Bouvier. Wherever you are."-->'''BHL:''' Mr. Simpson, I represent the estate of Jimmy Durrante. I have here a court document ordering an immediate halt to this unauthorised impersonation. Boys!\\''(goons take his hat and stomp on it)''\\'''Grandpa:''' Well, would it be alright if I laid down in the street and died?!\\'''BHL:''' ''(shuffles through some papers)'' Yes, that would be acceptable.** Happens ''again'' when he interrupts the Simpsons caroling and tells them the most well known carols are copyrighted, and Disney "owns" the song notes A-flat and G natural.** In the episode where the original creator of Itchy successfully sues the animation company for copyright infringement, the studio gets its money back when they sue the Post Office for using the character of Mr. Zip, which they claimed was a rip-off of one of their founder's stick-figure mailman character.* In the BackStory for the film ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', the Buy n Large Corporation has trademarked North. You know... the direction? Its part of their "Directional Marketing" program.* In one ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' episode, a man named [[Creator/WarnerBros "Time Warner"]] travels through ''time'' to ''warn'' people against doing anything resembling his intellectual property, such as [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones using a bird to play records]]. He tells the characters that they are not allowed to use TimeTravel to undo a [[AfterTheEnd nuclear holocaust]] because his company owns every time travel film and show they can think of.* Parodied in WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy when Stewie shares his Halloween candy with Brian and theyre forced to use several BlandNameProduct knockoffs instead of the well known brands.--> '''Stewie''': God I hate television...** Also parodied when the gang is escaping from dirty cops and start talking about Burger-King with bland-names. Quagmire lampshades this with a short "I hate television bureaucracy" rant.--> '''Joe:''' I made a call while you were all eating those big choppers and fresh-fries.\\''' Quagmire:''' Oh come on, they don't own french fries!** And the time that Peter made a propaganda ad about banning weed by [[HitlerAteSugar portraying Adolf Hitler and his fans as baked psychopaths]]:--> '''Carter:''' Damn, that was Fox. They own the rights to Hitler and won't have us slandering his name.[[/folder]]----